Continuity & Scrum Notes - April 11

If you read nothing else, READ THIS:

You are not allowed in the new front lobby. You are not allowed to use the new front entrance. These are hard hat areas. If you arrive at work in the morning and feel like walking through the new entrance door, hold that thought till next Monday. For now, off limits.

This is not negotiable, not optional. Stay out of the construction area if your head is uncovered.

Hard hats, customized and industry standard.

And  now for the rest of today's blog post....

The final staff moves are happening this week! Only a few souls are left in the old part of the building. The vacated spaces, random detritus and various scenes of disarray make the old building feel a little sadder and shabbier than ever. Poor thing. Never has one building worked so hard for so long for so many people. (I mean, maybe not.)

Coming soon: Monday, April 18
So many things will change by next Monday!

All deliveries: UPS, FedEx, vending machine vendors, office supply vendors, carrier pigeons, vacuum salespeople will all come through the TOE entrance, not the new lobby. (If you expect a package or delivery, be on the lookout for its arrival.)

Entrance, keys: You will finally be allowed to use that saucy new front entrance! Before Monday, Laurie will give you an electronic fob that will be your new key to the building.

Postage meter:  For now, this will be on the shelves under the main stairs, beginning Thursday. Its final location will be in either accounting or development

Mailboxes: These will be moved to the Green Room, probably also on Thursday.


Stuff that won’t be finished by April 18:
Work will still continue in parts of the lobby and cafe even after those spaces are turned over to us on Monday. Including:

• Lights in skylight will be lowered and wired with black wiring - delay in getting the wiring
• Doors and glass panels for the ‘community room’ - 4 to 6 weeks till delivery, then installation
• Steel covering for reception desk - there’s a delay in steel fabrication
• Kitchen sink is being replaced with a larger one - around 4/19
• Custom farmhouse table and kitchen island - 4 to 6 weeks out
• Final table tops for cafe tables - temporary tops will stay put until a to-be-designed photo project is ready to be installed on the table tops. (Editor's note: this sounds like an excellent project that could include decoupage, papier mache, rubber cement and countless trips to the craft store. Competitive Arts & Crafts could be a staff teambuilding opportunity!)
• Interior front door - wrong door shipped, new door is being built
• Donor wall/Pantry door - being built now
• Doors for space next to lobby elevator - still to be installed
• TV monitor for cafe - still to be installed
• More items may end up on this list by the end of the week!

Stuff that’s changed:

• Cleaning team was in over the weekend. A new layer of dust has been removed. Another layer of dust is sure to fall. We’re working to stay ahead of it as well as cut it off from its source.
• The whisper booth has been packed up and moved - THANK YOU Todd and Joe
• Meeting trailer has been emptied out - THANK YOU Todd, Evan, and others. The trailer will be leaving us this week.
• Chris and John are working out of their new production offices! (Their move dates had been a bit mysterious, but you can find them in the new space now.)

Etiquette!
Please save the date in your calendars and plan to use the proper fork: two of our friends from the Emily Post Institute will be leading a fun session on how to work well and play well with others in an open office like ours is now. Lizzie Post and Daniel Post Senning will be at VPR on Thursday, April 21, leading a 90-minute workshop that will help us work through all the day-to-day things that we worry/gripe/wonder about, but don't necessarily deal with effectively. Like, who left this dish in the sink? Must you talk so loudly on the phone? Is it appropriate to play the state's largest cribbage game on the acoustic paneling?
 
Look for location details in future posts and emails, but start thinking now about questions and hypotheticals you'd like to discuss. This is a good opportunity to get to know each other and a great start to working together in new ways. (Plus, lunch is included.)

Staff questions:

What's up with the camera mounted over the newsroom? Candid Camera? NSA spy cam?
The camera was there to make a timelapse movie over the last two months, with one frame grabbed every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The plan is make a movie of the newsroom's construction for capital campaign. Joe kind of forgot it was up there till someone spotted it; the camera was taken down today. (FYI - there is also a timelapse camera in Studio One doing a similar job.)

It’s cold in the building. Is that really from the doors being open up front?
Yep, it really is. The combination of the unfinished vestibule, the air-tightness of the new construction and the sieve of the old construction means that cold air gets wicked inside with an unusual ferocity. This should be resolved when the vestibule is finished and we move into Phase 3 of construction in the coming days.